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Vaughan Gething is expected to win Saturday’s Welsh Labor leadership election and become the first black leader of Wales’ semi-autonomous government.
Mr Gething, who is currently Wales’ Economy Minister, narrowly defeated Education Secretary Jeremy Miles in the race to replace First Minister Mark Drakeford. Mr Drakeford announced late last year that he would step down once his replacement was named.
Mr Gething, 50, won 51.7% of the vote from party members and affiliated trade unions, while Mr Miles received 48.3%.
If approved next week by the Welsh Assembly Senedd, in which Labor is the largest party, Mr Gething will become the fifth first-time minister since the Welsh National Assembly was formed in 1999.
Mr Gething, the son of a Welsh father and a Zambian mother, becomes the first black leader of a government in Britain, and by some definitions, in a European country.
“Today we turn the page in this country’s history book. A history we will build together,” Gething said in his victory speech. “Not only because I have the honor of being the first black leader of a European country, but also because the gap between generations is widening.”
Mr Gething’s appointment will mean three of Britain’s four governments will be led by non-white people. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is of Indian descent, and Scottish Prime Minister Humza Yousaf was born into a British Pakistani family.
Northern Ireland is jointly led by Michelle O’Neill and Emma Littlepengelly, making it the first country in the UK to have no white male head of government.
Wales has a population of approximately 3 million people and is one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom, along with England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The British government in London is responsible for defence, foreign affairs and other UK-wide issues, while the governments in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast are responsible for areas such as education and health.
Mr Gething served as Wales’ health minister during the coronavirus pandemic, but as economy minister he was dealing with the impact of Tata Steel’s plans to close both blast furnaces at its Port Talbot plant. 2,800 jobs will be lost at one of Wales’ largest employers.
He will take over a government that has often been at odds with Sunak’s London Conservative government. Wales is experiencing a wave of farmer protests similar to those that have roiled France and other European countries.
Mr Gething was the favorite to win the competition, but it was revealed that he had accepted a £200,000 (approximately $255,000) donation from a recycling company that had been convicted of environmental crimes and breaches of health and safety regulations. The camp was shaken.
Gething said the donations were properly declared under election rules.
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